Memory: Movie Review

Cast: Liam Neeson, Guy Pearce, Monica Bellucci
Director: Martin Campbell

A turgidly dull movie, Memory is the kind of film that makes anyone with any credibility feel like Liam Neeson is killing off his career with a string of utter duds.

In this lamentable "thriller", which draws from the Neeson sub-genre of a hitman who has a special set of skills, Neeson is hitman Alex Lewis, whose latest job should be his last. But when he finds out the case in El Paso involves child abuse, he goes rogue.

Deciding to take revenge on those involved, Lewis' path crosses with FBI Child Exploitation Task Force Agent Vincent Serra (Guy Pearce) who's been working on the case for nearly a year. But as Lewis' memory starts to fade, is he going to be able to complete the job in time?

Kiwi director Martin Campbell has been renowned for good work before (chiefly Goldeneye and Casino Royale), but here, it's the material which is less than ideal and the execution of it which becomes more and more tedious as the film goes on.

You'll wish your memory was failing you in parts of this film, but in truth, most of it consists of either sequences you've seen plenty of times before, or action that's without any kind of suspense and feels like it exists solely to protect a ticklist of requirements.

Neeson doesn't help things much here either. Whether it's The Ice Road, Honest Thief, The Marksmen, he's done all this before - and the more he mines this kind of role, the more you feel he's not even bothering to phone it in.

Memory is an awful film - it's the absolute dregs of streaming in many ways - it exists solely to fulfill contractual obligations and is despicably dull and interminably plodding throughout.

Memory is streaming on Prime Video from October 7.